Last year, a special video game released. One made by a single developer who wasn’t even that serious about it, which became one of the most popular and best-selling games of all time. Many months later, that person looked back at a year full of crazy events and wrote an interesting “diary” about the entire process. This isn’t a gaming blog, and 99% of that diary isn’t relevant, so I won’t go into more detail here.
One interesting thing, however, stood out to me. A paragraph in which he explained a “rule” he’d made for himself: “If I’m not enjoying working on something, I stop immediately and go do something else.”
Interesting. Very interesting.
All my life, I’ve been told and shown the opposite. I’ve trained myself to have the discipline and habits to not chase my own tail and get off track, but instead “push through” and get the work done. Every project of mine has started with one or two days full of energy and productivity … and then ten more days of pushing through and getting it over the finish line.
For a while, I thought this was just the way the world worked. Finishing stuff is hard. Motivation is fickle, our bodies unreliable, so you’ll simply have to push through the valleys. Especially creative and hyperactive people—which are almost synonyms—really struggle to stay interested, stay focused, and just do a tiny bit each day to get the work finished.
Other creatives and successful people agreed with me. Comedians talk about “writing a joke a day”, to keep up momentum and to push through bad periods. Game developers talk about “this is not a sprint, it’s a marathon”, which comes down to doing a little bit each day instead of working 16 hours when you’re motivated and working 0 hours when you’re not.
And yes, for a while, this worked for me. At least, it worked better than the plan I had as a kid/teenager, which was … erm … no plan at all. I finished 1 out of every 100 projects when I was 12 years old. I woke up each day with random thoughts in my head, and by the time I finally got the thoughts out of my head it was already night, so I went to bed and woke up the next day completely disinterested in what I’d done yesterday ;)
Once I learned to “push through”, I actually started being productive and finishing stuff. Once I learned to not go after motivation or sudden sparks of passion. Once I learned to change my planning to “I will take the next step in this project tomorrow”, and then do that, even though I have no motivation and don’t like doing it at all.
In fact, I write this at the tail end of another “pushing through”-week. I wanted to make a quick little game, but after one day full of issues and realizations the work had tripled, I lost all motivation. I spent several days just telling myself to “work all morning, you can take the rest of the day off”, because I knew that doing so every day would eventually finish that project on Sunday.
So, yes, pushing through obviously “works”. Being disciplined, not waiting on the magical “motivation” or “visit from the muse”, just taking one step every day, will get things done.
That doesn’t mean, however, that it’s a healthy or optimal method.
Long-Term Productivity
I know that I could have done more this week if I had worked on something I felt excited about instead. I know I could have worked 8 hours a day on a project that interests me, instead of pushing through for 2–3 hours each day on that other project and then being burned out for the rest of the day.
That burst of energy and excitement, which usually comes from starting a new project, is perhaps THE best natural way to be productive and efficient. Like many creatives, I can remember nights when suddenly an idea clicked for me and I could work for 5 hours straight on making it a reality. Even though I’d been incredibly tired before, perhaps because of a long day at university. I can remember starting project I was more excited about and getting more done in a week than the entirety of last month.
I’m old enough now to talk about “years of experience”. And my years of experience tell me that, in the long run, pushing through and sticking with a project you’ve started to hate does not work. It makes you less productive. It makes you work less and less. It means you only have energy for 1 hour of work, because you dislike the work so much, instead of having the energy for 4 hours.
Even worse, it leads to worse quality work. As I struggled to get that project over the finish line (this week), I cut some corners. I discarded some cool ideas for expansions I had. I simplified the design/illustrations on certain game elements because I couldn’t muster the energy to draw something more creative and involved. I probably missed a few tiny mistakes, probably didn’t reach the potential this idea had. But at the same time, I knew I did the best I could with the complete lack of motivation and energy I had for a few days.
Interestingly, two weeks ago, I did the exact opposite. I had planned to work on something … but then I woke up with a different idea in my head and said “screw it, let’s do that instead”. That different idea wasn’t tiny by any means. It was quite risky, and ambitious, and weird. But I made it in two days. Because I followed my current interest and passion. I made something in two days (start to finish, completed) that was arguably bigger and more complicated than the thing I spent all of last week making.
It was one of those rare situations where I fell way ahead of schedule! I was done much more quickly than planned and I could suddenly fit a lot more into this week. (Usually it’s the opposite: I start the week with a nice planning, and by Wednesday morning I’ve been forced already to shuffle stuff around and move half of it to next week :p)
And so, in my experience, if at all possible, I think it’s very wise to follow that “rule” from the developer. If you’re interested by something now, go work on that now. If not interested, go work on something else. In my experience, the interest will return. Because there was something that drew you to the idea in the first place, something that did interest you not too long ago, and that will return once you’ve given yourself a break from the project.
Of course, this won’t always be possible. Deadlines exist. You might have a job that tells you what to do, when to do it, and you can’t really change that. I understand. This advice will most likely apply to creatives and hyperactives, and less so to anyone else. Still, I think this is a good thing to keep in the back of your mind and a good ideal to work towards. Deadlines can be imposed in such a way that you have the time to meander and follow your interests for a bit. Needs can be communicated to managers and jobs can be changed.
The Biggest Downside
The biggest downside of “pushing through”, though, is something else entirely. Something I haven’t mentioned yet because I wanted to save it for last and really emphasize it. Namely,
Pushing through on things you like … will CAUSE you to not like them anymore.
I’ve always loved making music. But if someone forced me to work on (or play) the same songs over and over, I would quickly start to hate music and plug my ears.
Similarly, I have some ideas for video games that I truly believe in. Every time I remember them, every time I come across their project folder, I feel that pang of “ugh this will be so good, I HAVE to make it one day”. And so, years ago, I actually started making them … but never finished the three “major games” I started. Why? Because I started to hate video games, and game development, and typing code, and sitting behind a screen debugging the same shit over and over.
How did this happen? Not because I wasn’t making progress. Not because I lacked the skill—I’ve made many games to good reviews and even sold some. Not because I dislike games or video games now—I am still very active in board gaming and have actually started playing more video games since then.
It happened because I “pushed through”. Because, for weeks on end, I kept telling myself I had to work on that video game. I kept spending several hours a day trudging forward on some barren path, while better ideas had to be put aside, while I had to shut down any passion I felt for something else, while being too tired to even consider doing anything else for the remainder of each day.
That’s why I said, a year or so ago, that I would only return to developing (those) video games in a much different way. A healthier way, perhaps. If I make those “great video game ideas”, it would be as a side project that I don’t rely on. If it takes 6 years, so be it. If I never earn a dime from them, so be it. Because I need the freedom to stop working on it when the passion and interest is just not there. That’s the only way to actually be productive sustainably. I need to be able to say “I’d hate to do more programming today, so I am not going to do it.”
And, well, when you lose interest and motivation … you lose everything. I mean that quite seriously.
You could be the strongest person in the world, but if you’re not motivated to lift something, it won’t be lifted. You could be the smartest person in the world, or the best game designer ever, but if you have no spark at all inside you anymore then you will never actually make that dream game.
“Pushing through”, working on things even when you dislike doing so very much (in the moment), has the biggest potential downside of them all. Loss of interest and motivation. Loss of a passion or energy you once had. Loss of the one thing needed to start any type of action or creation, perhaps the one essential aspect of being alive.
Which makes it never worth it, in my eyes.
I see that now. I obviously wish I’d seen it ten years ago. The many projects I did and finished back then aren’t worth much when you realize how each of them basically killed my interest in that area for a year. And how they all suck because pushing through will quickly deteriorate your creativity and work quality.
But Things Need To Get Done!
Okay. So I try to follow this rule. I plan to do specific work tomorrow, but when I wake up, I realize my interests lie elsewhere today. So I discard my plan and work on something else.
This repeats many days in a row … and now I’m not finishing anything! Nothing gets done! Deadlines are missed! Oh no!
This is, I guess, the part where many people go wrong. They think this rule means that you sit around doing nothing when unmotivated. That you stay in bed until “inspiration strikes”, or that you simply refuse to finish a project because you’re “not feeling it today”.
No, that’s not it. In fact, in general, it’s useless to just tell people to “run away from something”. Instead, you need to tell people “to run towards something (else)”.
For example, take dieting. Telling people to stop eating as much food, or stop eating that food they like, has basically never worked. Instead, proper health experts will start by steering you towards healthier food. They’ll “allow” you to keep eating that food you like, but tell you to also eat more fiber and protein and this and that. This is much more achievable. And once you’ve reached that point, your body will be less hungry (thanks to all the nutrients you now eat!), you’ll naturally eat less, and you can actually sustain this. Don’t tell people to “stop eating bad food”; tell people “you can eat THIS to be healthier”
The same is true here. At least, it’s what I try to do, and I see other successful creatives do too.
When I feel no interested in a specific project, I don’t sit around doing nothing. I don’t take the day off or wait for something to happen. I go do something else.
That’s the whole point. You follow your current interest. There is, usually, at least one thing that’s clearly at the forefront of your mind. You don’t stop walking, you just walk to somewhere else. You don’t stop your momentum, you redirect it to something else for the day.
The only “pushing through” that is actually healthy, then, is “getting up each day and doing something”. That is the thing that keeps you healthy, that keeps your momentum, that keeps you in the flow, that helps you overcome obstacles or self-doubt. Get up each day, spent a few hours doing something, repeat.
What you actually work on is up for grabs.
You’ll go to bed satisfied because you did a lot of stuff today, and our brains are too stupid to realize that what you did wasn’t what you were “supposed to be doing” or wasn’t “the right thing” or whatever. Seriously. On very bad days, I know that I just need to do random shit. Solve a sudoku. Tune the guitar. Walk three circles in the backyard. Or the famous “up and down the stairs, and as you get downstairs you realize you forgot why you came here”.
Doing something is good for us. Forcing yourself to do the thing you really don’t want to do now is very very bad for us.
That’s been my experience. And, clearly, the experience of that one very successful developer. He dropped this project for a while, even though it was promising and making progress, just because he didn’t feel it. He didn’t stop. He instead worked on several other projects, did several other things, then returned when the time felt right—and made a best-selling game.
I am known for always delivering what I promised, always getting things done before the deadline, often going above and beyond what was expected.
Part of that, I shall admit, is just hyperactivity and perfectionism. I can never just scamp my work or deliver some hasty shoddy response to something. When I decide to do something, I do it right. When I focus, I hyperfocus and pay attention to all details and anything else that could be improved. Yes, it’s exhausting, sometimes more so for people I work with than for me.
But I think the ideas in this article are a large factor here too. I very regularly abort all my plans and trip up my schedule just to go do something else. But because I do something every day, I can take a lot of detours and unplanned trips, and still end up with finished stuff before deadlines.
I try to follow my interests and I try to discern between “just a bit lacking in energy/a bit stuck on this problem” and “I really really hate having to work on THIS THING right now”. The first one is natural and not a big deal. The second one should be reason to immediately switch off and go do something else. Because, let me tell you, I never ever want to kill my passion and motivation for entire skills (such as music, games, or writing) this way ever again.
Those were my thoughts for today. Wake up every day and do the thing that gets you fired up right now. If you consistently put in that work, you never have to “push through” when you hate what you’re doing, and you’ll still get things done (and usually faster and at a higher quality!) The alternative is perhaps getting one or two things done, but in a forced way, and in a way that kills your future excitement and passion completely.
Until next time,
Tiamo